Lawmakers leading negotiations on long-term highway legislation insisted last week on sharply higher spending than the Bush administration wants. The solons refused to back down despite a new threat of a Presidential veto.

Rep. Don Young, an Alaska Republican and vice-chairman of the House-Senate conference committee working on a final bill, vowed spending for highway and transit programs over six years would not fall below $275 billion.

Reuters reporter John Crawley wrote on June 23, “I can assure (lawmakers) there will not be any less out of this conference than what passed the House and I’m praying that there will be more,” quoting Young on the House floor.

Senate negotiators also voted to reaffirm the $318 billion in spending their chamber approved overwhelmingly this spring.

“Let there be no doubt that I strongly support the Senate bill,” said Sen. James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican and chairman of the committee. “The number is $318 billion.”

Young promised Inhofe that House negotiators would consider a higher figure in the coming weeks but made no pledge to publicly offer one.

Nevertheless, both the House and Senate spending amounts exceed the $256 billion proposed by President George W Bush.

Bush’s aides have threatened to veto the bill over the Congressional spending figures as well as proposals to withhold some money from states and circumvent Administration plans to restructure Amtrak.

“The veto recommendations of the President’s senior advisors on these issues still stand,” Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said in a letter to Inhofe this week.

Bush, who has not vetoed a bill yet, has made this usually non-controversial measure a referendum on his election-year drive to hold down spending at a time of record deficits.

Transportation construction projects are paid from the Highway Trust Fund, which is supported by gas tax receipts. Supporters of greater highway spending maintain neither Congressional proposal would boost the deficit. Others say there are funding mechanisms that would drive up red ink.

Young’s comments came before the House approved a record fourth extension of stopgap legislation to fund highway programs at last year’s levels for another 30 days.

The House approved a one-month extension for federal funding for highway and transit programs through July 31.

“Authorization for funding is due to expire on June 30,” Steve Hansen, communications director for the House Transportation and Infrastructure, told D:F on Thursday.

The legislation, H.R. 4635, “was approved by a 418-0 vote,” he said.

He explained, “The legislation will continue funding for highway construction, highway safety, transit, motor carrier, and surface transportation research programs at the levels approved in the fiscal 2004 budget resolution.”

The national highway and transit funding bill, TEA-21, expired on September 30, 2003, but had been extended on three previous occasions. The bill now goes to the U.S. Senate for consideration.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and public transportation industry security enhancements and additional transit security needs were outlined at a Congressional oversight hearing on June 24 in Washington.

Witnesses representing both federal agencies, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority, and the American Bus Assn. testified before the U.S. House Highways, Transit and Pipelines Subcommittee.

“It is vitally important that we be ready to face this challenge,” said Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.), the subcommittee chairman.

“Worldwide, the statistics on terrorist attacks are alarming,” he said.

Petri declared, “Forty-two percent of all terrorist attacks over the last 10 years have been carried out on rail systems and buses. Transit systems are particularly vulnerable to attack because they have open access with frequent stops and transfer points, and serve high concentrations of people in crowded quarters.”

The Wisconsin solon said, “We must ensure that the federal agencies charged with oversight of the safety and security of these public transportation systems have a clear plan for the best possible protection against, and response to, any deliberate harm, whether the threat is from international terrorists or domestic sources.

Earlier this month, H.R. 4604 was introduced in the House. It is intended to expand and improve anti-terrorist security programs for passenger railroad and freight rail systems. The Protecting Railroads against Enemy Efforts through Modernization, Planning and Technology Act (PREEMPT), was introduced a fortnight ago.

Federal Transit Administration Deputy Administrator Robert Jamison said, “Every workday, transit moves more than 14 million passengers. In two weeks, transit carries more passengers than Amtrak does in a year. In a single month, transit moves more passengers than U.S. airlines carry in a year. Both the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have placed a high priority on increasing security in the nation’s public transportation systems, and we are working together to ensure that transit systems are prepared to respond to security threats and emergencies.

“The challenge we face is balancing a necessarily open public transit environment with the need for security.”

APTA estimates the industry’s current security needs at $6 billion. Its president, William Millar, who testified at the hearing, stated that the industry has invested $1.7 billion to enhance security.

However, since September 11, 2001, federal investment in transportation security has been focused primarily on other modes of transportation.

In fiscal years 2003 and 2004, public transportation received $115 million for transit security grants in comparison to $11 billion invested to protect the national aviation system in fiscal years 2002 and 2003.

Overall, federal spending on security averages approximately $9 per aviation passenger compared to only about one-half cent per transit passenger.

“We do not need another wake-up call like Madrid,” said Millar.

“What we need is significant federal funding from the Department of Homeland Security to upgrade public transportation security.”

Safety and security are the top priorities of the public transportation industry, he said.

From September 11, 2001 through the end of 2003, “public transportation agencies invested $1.7 billion from their own budgets on security and emergency preparedness programs and technology, developed in concert with the Federal Transit Administration,” Millar added.

Some initiatives include, according to Millar, increased surveillance via closed circuit TV, increased training for employees, and more police and K-9 units added.

He told the solons chemical detection systems were being tested, infrastructure designs to eliminate hiding places were being implemented, drills are now routinely held with other first responders, and riders are being encouraged to be vigilant for suspicious activities or items.

“Americans use public transportation 32 million times a day, compared to less than 2 million daily passengers on the nation’s commercial air travel system,” said Millar.

“To date, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has allocated $115 million to 30 of the nation’s 6,000 transit systems for security compared to over $12 billion allocated to protect the nation’s air system.”

To address the unmet one-time and annual security needs that the public transportation industry has identified, APTA urged Congress in written testimony to both the House and Senate Subcommittees on Homeland Security Appropriations earlier this year to provide $2 billion in direct funding to transit systems in fiscal 2005 Homeland Security Appropriations bill. Last week’s request “asks Congress to fund transit security needs through authorizing legislation for a total of $6 billion over three years,” he said.

A press release noted APTA’s survey on public transportation security identified needs of at least $5.2 billion in additional capital funding to maintain, modernize, and expand transit system security functions to meet increased security demands. More than $800 million annually in increased operating costs for security personnel, training, technical support, and research and development have been identified, bringing transit security funding needs to $6 billion.

APTA is a nonprofit international association of more than 1,500 public transportation systems, and many other commercial and non-commercial transportation-related organizations.

TSA has lead responsibility for transportation security as established by the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, but the specific roles and responsibilities of TSA, other offices within DHS, and the FTA regarding public transportation security implementation and oversight have not been clearly spelled out.

As recently illustrated during President Reagan’s funeral events in Washington when a plane cleared to enter restricted airspace nevertheless caused the evacuation of the Capitol and neighboring office buildings, the clear division of responsibilities and protocol between agencies is crucial.

Witnesses for TSA and FTA testified that the agencies have held discussions to outline their respective responsibilities, and that they will write a memorandum of understanding to delineate these roles.

Preventing hearing loss in train crews is the aim of a proposed rule offered June 23 by the FRA. The proposal is intended to reduce unnecessary noise exposure and potential hearing loss of railroad employees who work in locomotive cabs.

“This rule seeks to improve the working conditions for thousands of locomotive engineers and conductors across America,” said FRA Acting Administrator Betty Monro.

“A quieter workspace not only protects against hearing loss, but contributes to better long-term health as well.”

The proposed changes would require manufacturers to design and build locomotives with quieter cabs and for railroads to maintain them to new standards. Noise reduction features such as better insulation, relocation of air brake exhaust piping, and less vibration from cab equipment already are being incorporated into newer locomotives. The rule supports these and other methods to reduce interior cab noise to the proposed lower levels.

In addition, the rule would require train crews to use hearing protection and railroads to provide training in hearing loss prevention, implement hearing conservation programs, and conduct regular noise monitoring.

The FRA said it believes the changes will reduce the incidence of noise-induced hearing loss, and that the rule will not impose significant additional costs on the railroad industry.

The complete notice of proposed rulemaking on “Occupational Noise Exposure for Railroad Operating Employees” is published in the June 23 Federal Register. It responds to a mandate in The Rail Safety Enforcement and Review Act of 1992. In advance of this proposal, the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee, a consensus oriented rulemaking body comprising representatives from the FRA, the railroad industry, rail labor, manufacturers, suppliers and others, examined the issue of occupational noise and recommended that FRA update the existing noise standard.

Deborah Hersman was sworn in on June 21 as a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. She formerly was a senior professional staff member of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, for five years. She also was staff director and senior legislative aide to Rep. Bob Wise (W.Va.) from 1992 to 1999.

Hersman’s term expires December 31, 2008.

For NCI: James Guffey Amtrak train No. 80, the northbound Carolinian, crosses over from No. 2 to track No. 1 at the 11th Street interlocking in Salisbury, N.C., 40 miles northeast of Charlotte on Norfolk Southern’s Piedmont Division. The one-spot, a P-42DC, is leading the passenger train. The Salisbury Switcher waits to enter the main line from Old Spencer Yard on October 31, 2003 at S Line Jct.

Ask Amtrak’s president what brings him to Salisbury, N.C., and you’ll get the obvious answer: A train.

David Gunn, Amtrak president and CEO, rode the rails from Selma to Charlotte on June 20, but he traveled by car Monday to the North Carolina communities of Kannapolis, Salisbury, High Point, Greensboro and Raleigh. He planned eventually to take an Amtrak train from Raleigh back to Washington.

The Salisbury Post reported Gunn spent an extended period in Salisbury, receiving a guided tour of the depot and attending a City Hall luncheon hosted by Mayor Susan Kluttz, a five-year member of the Amtrak Mayors Advisory Council.

Over recent years, Salisbury has been part of a state-driven effort to improve the passenger and freight train corridor between Raleigh and Charlotte. Salisbury has closed 12 crossings, seen a private-public partnership restore the depot, and benefited from $20 million of investment in the area close to the old train station.

It’s that kind of corridor development – an incremental, project-specific approach – that has surprisingly made North Carolina a leader in rail development, Gunn said.

The state has had a vision, addressed it step-by-step, and found a way to do it in a cost-effective way, Gunn said. The state and many of its cities, such as Salisbury, should be proud of what they have accomplished without much in the way of federal support, he added.

“It’s not replicated in very many places,” Gunn said, also giving credit to California. “...This is an example of how you make progress.”

Gunn said the nation’s passenger railroad used to have grandiose plans for high-speed rail corridors, electric trains and European-type efficiency everywhere it did business – but the cost, “billions and billions of dollars,” made it unrealistic, especially with Amtrak’s track record, Gunn said.

What North Carolina has accomplished has been impressive and represents the way passenger rail should be developed, Gunn said. He contends that the thing missing from making intercity rail service more viable is a federal match.

“You don’t have a federal partner, and you desperately need one,” he said. He emphasized that same point while speaking with reporter Mark Wineka at the Salisbury depot.

Transportation funding lacks a well-defined federal component, and the nation needs the funding for rail that it allocates to highways, Gunn said.

“They’ve completely ignored rail,” he said.

Putting improved passenger train service on the national agenda is a responsibility that rests with local officials and the people who use the system, Gunn added later.

U.S. Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.), state Sen. Andrew Brock (R), and state Rep. Lorene Coates (D), attended the luncheon along with local officials in Gunn’s honor.

Former Salisbury Mayor Margaret Kluttz, a past North Carolina Board of Transportation member, accompanied Gunn on part of his tour at the depot and represented U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole at lunch.

At the depot, Gunn said Amtrak experienced revenue growth and record ridership last year at 24 million passengers. Ridership over 22,000 miles within 46 states will exceed 25 million this year.

Gunn said fiscal controls are in place, and Amtrak’s employment has been cut by about 3,000 employees to just more than 20,000.

Amtrak has begun doing a credible job at maintenance and refurbishing of its rolling stock, Gunn said. Some 100 cars are being repaired this year, and 200 will be tackled next year, he said. Amtrak also is replacing 101 track miles this year.

“We’re doing a lot of good stuff,” Gunn said.

A 2003 The New York Times editorial said Gunn “has gained a great deal of credibility on Capitol Hill for taking on the railroad’s notorious inefficiencies.”

Amtrak has not had any recent cash crisis, but the key to next year will be achieving at least a $1.5 billion to $1.6 billion allocation from the Congress, according to Gunn.

The Piedmont and the Carolinian are the Amtrak passenger trains serving Salisbury and the Raleigh-Charlotte corridor. Gunn acknowledged that some of The Carolinian’s cars are “long in the tooth” and in need of refurbishing.

Gunn believes the passenger trains serving North Carolina could immediately reduce their running time by 30 to 45 minutes by eliminating the mail car and adding another coach. In his opinion, the North Carolina lines need more trains that would provide service on an hourly basis. If that could happen, the Charlotte-Washington corridor could be one of the busiest in the nation, Gunn said.

Gunn lamented, however, that the rail line from Selma to Washington is “falling apart.”

A passenger rail advocate, Susan Kluttz noted that the railroad has had a big impact on Salisbury’s history and will continue to be important to its economy and air quality, especially if Salisbury is served by high-speed passenger service between Raleigh and Charlotte.

“We all know we’ve got to get people out of cars,” Kluttz said.

Calling Greensboro’s restored depot “a grand station,” Gunn praised North Carolina as being farther down the tracks than most states in upgrading stations and rails and making other improvements needed for passenger trains, the Greensboro News Record reported.

There’s just one thing missing, he said.

Trains. North Carolina has too few.

“You should have a train every hour between Charlotte and Raleigh,” Gunn said after touring the J. Douglas Gaylon Depot, the downtown station built in 1927 and recently rehabilitated as Greensboro’s transportation center.

City, regional and long-distance buses began using the depot last August. Amtrak trains, which departed the station for the last time in 1979 for smaller quarters in west Greensboro, are scheduled to return next June.

Gunn, a transportation expert who headed transit authorities in New York and Toronto before becoming president of Amtrak’s 22,000- mile system in 2002, said Amtrak can supply equipment, manpower and expertise for more trains if North Carolina will supply the money, as it does for two existing Raleigh-Charlotte passenger trains, the Carolinian and the Piedmont.

Gunn said a much better spread of trains is needed “to make this place hum.”

Allan Paul, a state rail official who accompanied Gunn around the depot, said projections call for two more Raleigh-Charlotte trains in the next five years. Within 10 years, the total should number eight, he said.

Gunn said people will ride these trains. Between Los Angeles and San Diego, 12 trains a day run at capacity. Demand for seats runs high on Amtrak’s Washington-New York- Boston corridor.

NCI: Leo King More than 10 years ago the Niantic River Movable Bridge was troublesome, as were Thames River Movable Bridge, and Old Lyme Draw (“Conn”) over the Connecticut River. Two other spans were replaced in the late 1980s. This view, at “Nan,” which railroaders call the Niantic deck, was taken before catenary was installed between Boston and New Haven, Conn., and F-40s still plied the Northeast Corridor.

Part of the Northeast rail corridor that carries thousands of passengers a day between Boston and New York is in danger of being severed, Amtrak says yet again, because of the uncertain state of three Connecticut bridges.

(D:F has presented several stories on the topic over the last five years. – Ed.)

If any of the bridges, all within 20 miles of New London, Conn., became impassable, rail transit along the corridor would be cut off, prompting the rail carrier to consider busing travelers to a waiting train on the other side of the waterway. Two regional Amtrak civil engineers said last week the threat is real.

The civil engineers said there is no immediate safety risk for passengers passing over the century-old bridges, but railroad officials are saying the ailing infrastructure is the result of inadequate funding from Congress, drawing rebukes from some lawmakers.

Rep. Michael E. Capuano, who serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, criticized Amtrak for poor communication of its problems, saying he’s never heard the possibility that these three bridges could cause the breakup of the corridor.

“If you’re telling me that those bridges could fail tomorrow, why haven’t they been up there [in Congress] pounding the tables?” the Somerville, Mass. Democrat said. “Do they want these bridges to fail, somehow thinking that’s going to get our attention? That’s a hell of a way to do politics.”

Two bridges at risk, spanning the Thames and Niantic rivers, open regularly for water traffic. The third bridge, over the Miamicock River, is a fixed structure spanning 80 feet that has shifted over decades of use.

Amtrak estimates the cost for repairing all three to be more than $31 million, and no plan exists to deal with the impact of permanent bridge failure. The highest uncertainty lies with the future of the 1,375-foot-long Thames River Bridge, which Amtrak officials say could take a year or longer to replace in an emergency.

“This bridge has the potential to seize up,” George Fitter, an assistant division engineer for Amtrak, said as he stood on the drawbridge on June 15 describing the mechanical issues involved in repairing it.

“I don’t know what we would do if it fetched up and seized,” said Andy Pedro, an assistant New England Division engineer for structures at Amtrak. “I don’t know how we would get it open.”

Those questions leave Amtrak with a dilemma if one of the movable bridges fails permanently: Find a way to force the bridge open and keep it there, preventing rail traffic from passing, or find a way to force the bridge closed, disrupting water traffic. The Coast Guard could require the Thames River Bridge, which last year carried 1.8 million Amtrak passengers, to remain open permanently for water traffic.

Two other movable bridges, at Mystic River in Mystic and Shaw’s Cove in New London, were replaced in the late 1980s.

Amtrak press releases describing bright days ahead have become scarcer, replaced with a more aggressive campaign to reverse what it insists is insufficient funding from Congress. It is highlighting the bridge problems as its case in point about the impact of at least a decade of deferred maintenance.

Amtrak spokesman Dan Stessel, based in Washington, traveled by train June 15 with Glenn Maffei, a writer with States News Service, to underline the poor state of the three bridges. He said Amtrak is using the bridges as “the biggest, the best example” that tells “the story of why this is important to people.”

The bridges join a problematic capital program that includes the replacement of 1920s-era cables feeding the catenary system. Backup cables have failed, leaving one functioning cable system.

“The penalty for not doing it varies,” Gunn said. “The Thames Bridge – we can roll the dice and say it’s good for another two years. We can patch it for another two years, and maybe we’ll win. If we lose the bridge, the corridor’s broken. If we lose the cables in Penn Station, the entire Northeast Corridor is crippled.”

Beginning in 1997, maintenance was deferred for five years, after the federal government put Amtrak on a path toward self-sufficiency. Federal subsidies gradually declined through 2002, when Amtrak was supposed to be profitable, forcing the rail carrier to borrow more from private sources. In 2002, New York’s Penn Station was mortgaged for $300 million to make payroll.

To come up to speed, Amtrak says it needs $3.8 billion for infrastructure, $1.1 billion for fleet maintenance, and $900 million for stations and facilities. Amtrak’s inspector general estimates the rail carrier will need as much as $1.8 billion over the next five years to stabilize the system and upgrade tracks, bridges, and tunnels in the Northeast Corridor.

“You can’t nickel-and-dime them to death,” said Rep. James P. McGovern, Democrat of Worcester. “We really can’t be having this fight every single year.”

Trains 66 and 67 – named at various times as the Federal and the Night Owl, will again run as a through train between Boston and Newport news, Va. starting July 1, Amtrak sources told D:F on Friday. The Newport News region is often referred to as “Tidewater.”

The carrier reported, “Local trains 75, 76, 77” are discontinued.

The trains will be in the Regional Service group, and “will offer reserved coach, business class, and café car service.”

Checked baggage will be handled at Boston, Providence, New Haven, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington. There will be no checked baggage south of Washington.

No. 67 will operate daily, but the trains it is replacing between Washington and Newport News will have slightly different arrival and departure times in Virginia on weekends.

Amtrak is advising passengers on No. 66 boarding in Virginia to transfer to train 198 in Washington for an earlier arrival as far as New York City.

“If they don’t want to do this they may remain on board train 66,” and they must “stay on train 66 if they are going beyond New York.”

Unreserved tickets sold for train 75, 76 or 77 will be honored on trains 66 and 67 south of Washington, or they may be exchanged for reserved tickets.

Amtrak is making plans to replace its dilapidated St. Louis station this year.

Railroad spokesman Marc Magliari in Chicago told D:F last week, “There are active plans to improve our St. Louis facility, which will need to occur in two phases. First, an interim station will be constructed west of the current temporary facility.”

The current facility “needs to be removed,” he said (via e-mail) “in order for the permanent station to be built. The interim station will replace the temporary one.”

After the permanent station is built, “the interim station will be converted into a maintenance and mechanical facility,” he added.

“Look for progress on the interim facility by the fourth quarter of this year,” he said, which would be between October and December.

Magliari said, “In the meantime, much of the disruption at the current facility will be resolved with more progress on the Missouri DOT’s efforts to make I-64 and U.S. Route 40 more earthquake resistant. That project is now being carried out almost directly over our property.”

A high-speed train will make money for Florida in the end, proponents said June 22 as a panel of state analysts began looking at a proposal to kill the voter-approved project.

On the other hand, if a petition drive to kill the project is successful, Florida will lose tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity, according to an economist working for supporters of the train.

Tim Lynch, director of the Center for Economic Analysis at Florida State Univ., looked at recent research into the costs and benefits of high-speed rail.

Three Florida studies since 1997 all predict several billion dollars in net benefits, Lynch told the state analysts.

The analysts will try to assess the potential cost of a proposed Constitutional amendment to repeal the high-speed rail project.

Voters in 2000 approved a Constitutional amendment ordering the state to build a high-speed rail line. The first leg of the proposed rail network will run from Orlando to Tampa. Construction could begin next summer – two years behind the Constitutionally mandated start date. The plan is for the train to eventually connect Orlando with Fort Lauderdale and Miami, and on to Jacksonville and Tallahassee.

Gov. Jeb Bush, a persistent and loud critic, and Florida Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, want to get voters to repeal the provision with a ballot measure they are trying to get on the November ballot. They say the state can’t afford the train.

The state would commit $75 million a year under the plan prepared by Fluor Bombardier, the private group that is negotiating a contract with the state to design, build, and operate the train. Fluor Bombardier has said Florida will reap $2.3 billion in profit after the train is up and running and the costs have been recouped.

“Derail the Bullet Train,” the campaign to repeal the project, needs half a million verified signatures by early August to make the November ballot. The state Division of Elections put the campaign’s total at 95,579 on Tuesday.

The campaign didn’t make a presentation to the state analysts, but Bush, who has called the train’s projected costs extraordinary, said later Tuesday he didn’t think high-speed rail would be viable for the next decade.

“It’s possible 30 years from now that with new technologies high-speed rail will be cost-effective and an important part of our transportation system,” Bush said.

Lakeland businessman C.C. “Doc” Dockery, who spearheaded the 2000 petition drive that led to the project, said he was optimistic the train would survive Bush and other critics.

“Three million Floridians voted for it four years ago,” Dockery said. “I think those 3 million Floridians knew what they were doing.”

Rising gas prices and frustration with congestion on Florida’s highways will just generate more support if the issue makes the ballot, Dockery said.

A status report on a public initiative to repeal Florida’s High-Speed Rail Constitutional Amendment and possible a presentation by the state’s chief financial officer, Tom Gallagher, are expected to be presented at the Florida High-Speed Rail Authority’s board meeting on June 29 meeting in Tallahassee.

Gallagher and GOP Gov. Jeb Bush are adamantly opposed to the fast trains plan. The commissioners will also hear Fluor-Bombardier’s response to the authority’s request for additional financial commitment.

The public meeting begins at 10:00 a.m. in City of Tallahassee Commission Chambers.

Alstom, banks reach debt deal

Alstom SA, the troubled French engineering group, took another step toward its financial restructuring on June 23 by negotiating new terms with its banks on about $4.8 billion in outstanding debt.

The company, awaiting European Union approval for a multibillion-dollar bailout, said it had obtained easier terms for 2004 and 2005 in exchange for some tougher conditions beginning in 2006, The AP reported.

Alstom shares surged on the news, rising 21 percent to close at 86 Euro cents ($1.05) in Paris.

The train and power plant builder and its banks were forced to renegotiate the loan covenants after it failed to meet a previous set of conditions.

Alstom said the deal on new agreements was “an important step” toward implementation of a rescue package presented on May 26.

The plan includes a €2.5 billion ($3 billion) state-orchestrated bailout designed to steer the company, which employs 77,000 people, away from the brink of bankruptcy.

Alstom was forced to re-negotiate the loan covenants after it acknowledged in March that it was set to miss its previous targets.

The group nearly collapsed last year under the weight of a crippling debt load and the €4 billion ($4.8 billion) cost of dealing with faults in its heavy-duty gas turbine technology acquired from Swiss-Swedish rival ABB Ltd.

Downturns in the markets for Alstom’s power plants and cruise ships have also weighed on the company’s attempts to boost profitability.

Under the new debt deal, Alstom remains committed to keeping total debt below €4.4 billion ($5.3 billion). At the end of March, the company had debt of €3 billion ($3.6 billion), below the maximum €4.8 billion ($5.8 billion) set out in its previous conditions.

The European Commission is expected to approve Alstom’s bailout package early next month, ahead of the company’s annual shareholder meeting July 9.

GAO says ‘New Starts’
program needs revisions

The General accounting office was wondering why the Federal Transit Administration was only offering to fund new transit starts at 60 percent instead of the Congressionally authorized 80 percent. The short answer is so that FTA can begin more new programs.

“For the fiscal year 2005 cycle,” wrote the GAO, “FTA evaluated 38 projects, rated 29 projects, and proposed seven projects for funding. FTA recommended five of the seven projects for full-funding grant agreements (FFGAs).”

The report noted, “FTA considered the remaining two projects to be meritorious and recommended a total of $50 million for these projects in fiscal 2005,” but the FTA did “not clearly explain how it decides which projects will be recommended for funding outside the full-funding agreements or what project sponsors must do to qualify for such a recommendation.”

Last year, in response to language contained in appropriations committee reports, “FTA instituted a policy favoring projects that seek a federal ‘New Starts,’ as the program is called, share of no more than 60 percent of the total project cost, even though the law allows projects to seek up to 80 percent, in its recommendation for FFGAs.”

According to FTA officials, the GAO stated, “This policy allows more projects to receive funding and ensures that local governments play a major role in funding such projects. FTA describes the 60 percent policy as a general preference; however, FTA’s fiscal year 2005 New Starts report suggests that this policy is absolute in that projects proposing more than a 60 percent federal New Starts share will not be recommended for an FFGA.”

The Administration’s fiscal 2005 budget proposal requests $1.5 billion for the New Starts program, a $225 million increase over the amount appropriated for the fiscal 2004 cycle, according to the GAO.

The federal agency noted Congress is currently considering legislative reauthorization proposals with several provisions and initiatives for the New Starts program, including streamlining the New Starts evaluation process for projects requesting less than $75 million in New Starts funds, expanding the definition of eligible projects, changing the ratings categories, and maintaining the maximum federal New Starts share at 80 percent of total project cost.

Project sponsors GAO interviewed “had varying views on these provisions, but most said that clear definitions would be needed for any proposed changes to the New Starts process.”

All 26 projects with existing FFGAs have yet to receive funds as scheduled. The amount of funding appropriated was less than the amount authorized and scheduled by the FFGA.

As of March 2004, the 26 projects have received a total of $294 million, or 5 percent, less than the amount scheduled by the projects’ FFGAs. The amount and timing of differences varied for each project. Project sponsors GAO interviewed have developed methods to mitigate the impact of receiving less than the scheduled annual amount for their project, but these methods can generate additional costs.

The GAO explained the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) and subsequent legislation “authorized about $8.3 billion in guaranteed funding for the FTA’s New Starts program, which funds fixed guideway transit projects, such as rail and trolley projects, through FFGAs.

GAO recommended that Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta direct FTA administrator Jennifer Dorn to “clearly explain the basis on which it decides which projects will be recommended for funding outside of FFGAs, such as projects considered to be meritorious, and what projects must do to qualify for such a recommendation.”

The agency recommended the FTA examine the impact of its policy favoring projects requesting less than 60 percent New Starts funds. Department officials generally agreed with the information provided and concurred with the recommendations, the GAO reported.

Very much like Boston’s North Station and the adjacent Fleet Center for the Democratic National Convention, bomb dogs will screen subway trains in New York City for explosives during the GOP convention in August. High-tech cameras will do the same with cars, and a small army of uniformed and plainclothes officers will be in the streets around Madison Square Garden.

The New York Times reported on Friday Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the city’s police commissioner Raymond Kelly outlined a plan on Friday that they hope will achieve two goals: ensure the safety of President Bush and those attending the Republican National Convention and minimize commuter headaches.

“The disruption will be a little bit annoying, but minimal,” Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show.

The transportation plan calls for one lane of avenues directly outside Madison Square Garden, site of the convention, to remain open to motorists, except during the approximately 13 hours the convention will be in session. Buses will be rerouted; parking restricted and streets bordering the convention to the north and south will be closed for several blocks.

A restricted area around the arena will be controlled by checkpoints, where police will demand identification from anyone seeking entry. Cars entering the area, including those carrying delegates and dignitaries, will be screened for explosives and other contraband by devices that provide real-time video images of their undercarriages.

Officials have said that Penn Station, located directly below the arena, will remain open during the convention. The transportation hub serves Amtrak, the Long Island Rail Road, New Jersey Transit, and the city’s subway system. Riders could face delays, but no shutdowns, officials said.

Preliminary plans call for state and city police officers – with bomb-sniffing dogs and hand-held chemical detection devices – to board commuter and subway trains one stop before they reach Penn Station during the hours of the convention. The trains will be swept for suspicious packages and checked for terror suspects before being allowed to continue into the station, officials said.

North Carolina’s Triangle regional rail system won’t reduce traffic congestion or air pollution anywhere near enough to justify its now-projected $800 million price tag, a California think tank stated in a report released June 21.

The “Triangle” is Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte.

The Durham Herald-Sun reported the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation said North Carolina is not New York. The population is too spread out and commuters are too attached to their automobiles for rail systems planned for the Triangle, the Triad and Charlotte to succeed, it said.

“It’s just not realistic,” said Ted Balaker, lead author of the study, Past Performance vs. Future Hopes: Will Urban Rail Improve Mobility in North Carolina?

“If rail struggles so much in other cities with better conditions, it’s really going to struggle in Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte,” he said.

John Claflin, general manager of the Triangle Transit Authority, disagreed. The TTA’s regional rail system, set for launch in 2008, is part of a long-term solution to traffic congestion that is only going to get worse as the region grows, he said.

The TTA estimates its diesel locomotive-drawn trains will carry 18,500 riders a day between Durham and Raleigh when it opens, Claflin said. Ridership is projected to grow to 25,000 a day by 2020, he said. He could not say what percentage of total daily trips in the area that would represent.

According to the NCDOT, however, traffic on I-40 alone is expected to grow from the current 150,000 vehicles a day to 233,000 vehicles daily by 2050 – and even though the state is widening the interstate to eight lanes, the level of service through Research Triangle Park is expected to remain at an “F” level – indicating bottlenecks and stop-and-go traffic.

Trains are part of the solution, Claflin said, adding that alternatives favored by the Reason Foundation, including more buses, high-occupancy vehicle lanes and toll roads, will not be enough.

“[Buses] are cheaper, but what happens when you have delays on I-40?” he asked. “They’re in the same traffic everybody else is sitting in.”

The Reason Foundation, a free market think tank, follows transit issues nationwide. Balaker said the first phase of the TTA’s rail system is further along than the others being planned in the state, but it’s not too late for policy-makers to rethink its second phase or look more closely at the systems planned for the Triad and Charlotte.

“Far too often it becomes ‘we have to do something,’ and rail becomes the something,” he said. “It’s easily sold. People understand it.”

A better answer to congestion would be a patchwork of smaller solutions, including toll roads, traffic-light synchronization and increased telecommuting, he said.

Problems in predicting how many passengers will ride Charlotte’s first light-rail transit line have cost $7 million in planning and construction delays – and the cost could rise, The Charlotte Observer reported June 13.

If the North Carolina city’s computer model that predicts ridership had passed federal scrutiny and delivered forecasts on time, Charlotte likely would have been promised the federal money needed to build its $398.7 million line, said Mayor Pat McCrory and Charlotte transit chief Ron Tober.

Instead, the Federal Transit Administration told Charlotte early last summer that the city’s ridership forecasting model was unacceptable.

Tober remembers the message: “You’ll have to junk this and make wholesale changes.”

The ridership-model problems illustrate the difficulties behind the city’s first effort to build rapid transit, which county voters endorsed in 1998 with a half-cent sales tax increase.

The projects are technical and complex. Charlotte plans to build five lines of rail and rapid-bus transit by 2025 and dramatically upgrade bus service, spending $2.9 billion. It would be one of the state’s largest capital projects ever, the equivalent of 11 uptown arenas or 2.5 outer belts.

One crucial element is winning federal money. Charlotte can’t afford to build the lines unless the federal government agrees to pay about 50 percent – but competition is fierce. Missteps and delays are costly.

After Charlotte was told to rebuild parts of its ridership forecasting model last year, months of delays resulted.

Then in February, President Bush’s budget was announced. Charlotte officials were disappointed to see the South line wasn’t recommended for a Full Funding Grant Agreement, in which the federal government would promise to pay for 50 percent of Charlotte’s South line.

FTA staff members say the city wasn’t far enough along in “planning and technical capability.” They wouldn’t elaborate.

Now, as planners hope to start construction in September on the electric-powered train line from uptown to Interstate 485 near Pineville, the City Council faces a difficult decision.

Does it wait for the grant agreement, delaying construction further? That would add an estimated $1.2 million in cost each month; or does it break ground, hoping the federal money will come? Before he’ll support starting construction, McCrory says, “I’ve got to have some pretty strong assurances that we’re getting the federal money.”

He blames two city departments for assuming the ridership model was right – Tober’s transit department, in charge of building and operating the line, and transportation, which oversees the model that predicts ridership.

“I think the mistake should have been caught earlier,” McCrory said. “I had some strong words. How did this happen? Why did this happen? Make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Charlotte, N.C. trolley service from South End through Uptown Charlotte will begin operations today. Staffers were testing car No. 85 on the trolley line until 4:30 p.m. on Friday, which was also when kickoff ceremonies were held. This is the return of electrified trolley cars on Charlotte’s streets for the first time since 1938.

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission has developed a two-volume study, Linking Transit, Communities and Development: Regional Inventory of Transit-Oriented Development Study.

The first volume addresses the benefits and barriers of transit-oriented development and recommendations for funding and implementation in the region. The second profiles 45 stations throughout the Delaware Valley.

The Delaware Valley’s extensive transit network, which is the fifth largest in the nation, is one of the region’s great assets. While the region has more than 340 fixed-rail stations, most have not developed the surrounding area to best meet the needs of transit riders.

The report is available on a CD.

New Jersey Transit inspected hundreds of its commuter coaches over last two weeks after a wheel fell off a train that had just finished its final trip of the night. Train No.1119 was going less than 10 mph through NJT’s Suffern, N.Y., layover facility when the wheel came off one of the passenger cars at about 7:30 p.m. June 17, transit officials said.

The coach, which remained upright, had just dropped off its last passengers at nearby Suffern station. No one was injured, officials said. The 1119, which travels from Hoboken through Passaic and Bergen counties, usually carries 400 to 500 passengers, reported the Newark Star-Ledger on June 24.

Robert Vallochi, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said the train had been traveling at 70 mph while on the main line.

In Mexico City, EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt joined colleagues from the World Resources Institute, Mexico City government, the Mexican Ministry for Environment and Natural Resources, and the Mexico City Center for Sustainable Transport to launch the Mexico City Diesel Retrofit Project.

The pilot project will reduce emissions of particulates and other pollutants by as much as 90 percent or more in a fleet of 20 Mexico City diesel buses. The fine particulate matter and other emissions from older diesel-powered trucks and buses are known to pose serious public health concerns and are a major cause of air pollution in Mexico City.

“EPA is excited to be here in Mexico to launch our first international retrofit project,” said Leavitt. “This collaborative project builds on the success of our domestic diesel retrofit programs, and when replicated, will help improve the air quality for the people of Mexico City.”

The project is expected to demonstrate how the combined use of low sulfur fuels and diesel retrofit technologies can improve air quality and reduce impacts to public health. The project is similar to diesel retrofit projects now underway in U.S. cities including Seattle, New York City, and Washington, DC, where fleet owners and operators have committed to retrofit more than 150,000 diesel vehicles.

Acca Yard is headache for CSX, Amtrak

Many Amtrak trains travel slowly when they get near Acca Yard between Richmond and Staples Mill station in Va., as well as CSX fright trains. Passenger trains frequently move at a snail’s pace rolling into Richmond’s Main Street Station.

On a recent ride from Washington recently, it took a rider 45 minutes to make the final leg from Staples Mill station in Henrico County into the downtown Main Street Station – a distance of only 8 miles.

The pace was about 11 mph. Even in the best of times, the final 8-mile stretch into downtown Richmond usually takes trains 27 minutes.

“Getting through Richmond,” said Karen Rae, the state’s top rail official, “is one of the most challenging segments of the entire route between the Northeast and Florida.” Her daughter rode the train.

The main reason for the slowdown is a sprawling Acca freight rail yard southeast of Staples Mill Station, reported the Richmond Times Dispatch of June 21.

The century-old classification yard, once the pride and joy of Richmond’s business leadership, has become an irritant for Amtrak, for rail planners and especially for its owner, CSX Corp.

Acca builds trains to move along much of the railroad’s 23,000-mile system from Florida to Canada.

An average 50 to 55 freight and passenger trains roll through Acca daily, plus 10 trains that are built there daily.

In 1924, a rail executive hailed Acca’s growth as key to “the prosperity of the city.” In more modern times, though, Acca’s growth has become a double-edged sword. Its congestion is part of wider operating problems for CSX – problems caused by closing other yards or giving up miles of track.

In Virginia, closing the larger Potomac Yard in Alexandria in the early 1990s for real estate development began to exacerbate congestion here.

Now, Acca is likened to the mother of all highway gridlock: the “Mixing Bowl,” where the Capital Beltway converges with interstates 395 and 95 in Springfield in Northern Virginia.

“Acca Yard could be compared to the Springfield interchange,” Rae said.

A healthy economy this year has actually made things worse for CSX along its own “I-95 corridor,” the New York-Florida “A Line” that provide vital rail service for much of the Eastern U.S.

“There’s too much volume and it’s a bottleneck,” Rae said. “It’s like taking 14 lanes of traffic and funneling it into two lanes.”

John Gibson, CSX’s vice-president of operations planning and research, described Acca as a “narrow area where there’s limited flexibility” to move trains.

The railroad currently suffers from some of the worst performance marks in the industry, according to the trade journal Traffic World.

CSX recently held a conference to reassure major customers that a new operating plan will help speed shipments and provide more reliable service. “The One Plan” is based on software that has helped other railroads, including Norfolk Southern Corp., make more precise decisions on train operations.

This ebb and flow of trains could keep Richmond’s Main Street Station from becoming a major destination for passenger trains.

“It’s a major, major headache,” said Alan Tobias, the state’s manager of passenger-rail programs. “This is what keeps us from getting more trains into Main Street Station.”

The vintage station reopened in December after nearly three decades without rail service.

City Council has expressed high hopes for the $51.6 million project, including turning it into a downtown transportation hub, but only four trains a day operating between Newport News and Washington stop there.

The passenger count has been slowly trending upward, with 1,045 people boarding or departing in May, but the ornate facility remains a blip on the Amtrak map. By comparison, Staples Mill Station in Henrico County had nearly 20,000 passengers in May.

Amtrak officials say they would like to change that. “Staples Mill is a functional station, but it doesn’t do the downtown justice,” said Drew Galloway, a senior director in Amtrak’s strategic-planning department.

The passenger railroad has conducted market surveys that indicate the stations serve distinct markets, with Staples Mill providing access on the west side of Richmond and the suburbs. Main Street offers closer rail service for city residents and for people who live south or east of Richmond.

The key, Galloway said, is improving the 27-minute average slog between Staples Mill and Main Street. The goal is to cut it in about half.

Parts of Acca Yard can move Amtrak trains efficiently. It has a designated “bypass track” for passenger trains on CSX’s main north-south line.

That track, on Acca’s west side, continues south down the Downtown Expressway median, and from there, trains cross the James River.

New York legislators are about to pass a bill that would ban manufacturing, selling and using wood preservative creosote beginning January 1, 2005, according to the Railway Tie Assn. (RTA). Expected to be signed by Gov. George Pataki, the bill would be the first creosote-banning legislation in the U.S.

Progressive Railroading reported on June 21 although it wouldn’t apply to wood railroad ties, the ban would raise more communities’ concerns about health issues tied to creosote-treated products, RTA officials believe.

“Even though railroads have been exempted from this ban on the use of creosote and creosote-treated wood, we anticipate a firestorm of negative publicity that will likely impact all producers and users of creosote-treated wood products,” said RTA Executive Director Jim Gauntt in an email sent to association members and rail industry officials.

“In addition to the costs that this will place on all of us, there likely will be a continuing legislative domino effect in other states.”

Canadian Pacific Ry. says it has begun phasing in a rail capacity allocation system to better manage growth in the import container business on Canada’s West Coast.

CPR said its rail network has been operating smoothly for several months after dealing with an extraordinary increase in traffic volumes. The railway said in a press release “The time is right to implement a system that will bring discipline to the traffic flow and avoid the significant surges that create congestion in the supply chain.”

Under the new system, CPR will allocate to each of the shipping lines it serves an annual import container volume through the Vancouver Gateway based on past volumes and growth projections. CPR will supply sufficient railcars to meet the allocated volume. Intermodal terminal operators will commit to quick turnaround of railcars to maximize car availability. The allocation system is being phased in through June.

“This is a critically important part of a more disciplined and orderly approach to the integrated logistics system,” said Fred Green, CPR’s executive vice-president for Operations and Marketing.

“It encompasses shipping lines, ports, and terminal operators, as well as customers that trans-load import shipments into domestic containers.”

CPR developed its allocation system after consultation with shipping lines and the port over the past month. “Everyone in the integrated logistics system wants business to grow, but growth must be managed for maximum effectiveness for all parties,” Green said. “No logistics system can accommodate significant unplanned volume increases like those that exceeded system capacity in the first quarter this year.”

CPR moved 24 per cent more international containers through the Vancouver Gateway in first-quarter 2004 than in the same period of 2003.

The sudden surge in container volumes in late 2003 and early 2004 caused bottlenecks and container backlogs at U.S. West Coast and Canadian ports.

Green said systemic delays caused by uncontrolled growth damage North America’s international reputation and block opportunities for economic expansion.

“We need a concerted, co-operative approach that builds confidence with our shippers that the service they are provided is consistent and reliable.”

A CPR-Gateway joint stakeholders meeting will be held in Vancouver in late August.

Mr. Green said CPR is doing everything it can to create solutions to the growing demand in Canada, including targeted track expansion, “However, in the absence of a regulatory and tax environment in Canada that supports large-scale infrastructure expansion, disciplined control systems are required. Without a positive change in the legislative environment, infrastructure expansion will be an increasingly critical issue for Canada’s economic growth,” he said.

CPR said it is also integrating 5,500 new intermodal railcars into its rail car fleet, and has introduced remote-control locomotive power to intermodal service. The engines are positioned at mid-train or rear end.

A spokesman said the remote-control locomotives “enable CPR to run intermodal trains as long as 10,000 feet year-round.”

CPR is acquiring 75 more high-performance alternating current (AC) locomotives this year, bringing its fleet of AC locomotives to 582. All are equipped to operate in remote control.

In a speech earlier this month, Rob Ritchie, President and CEO, told an audience of government and transportation people that North America’s transportation infrastructure “is under extreme stress.” He urged governments to develop public policy that will enable transportation companies to invest in urgently needed capacity expansion.

He also cautioned that current talk of regulated forced access to railway lines in Canada is scaring away the investment capital railways need to fund expansion today. Forced access would enable anyone who wants to provide rail service to use an established railway’s lines.

Also this month, Vancouver Port Authority president and CEO Capt. Gordon Houston reiterated plans for a $1-billion expansion to Port of Vancouver container terminals. Houston said this investment must be accompanied by expansion of Canada’s road and rail systems if the port is to achieve an anticipated tripling of container volumes by 2020.

“The VPA is aggressively pursuing infrastructure development at the Port of Vancouver,” he confirmed, “but we’re also working together with our public- and private-sector partners in Canada’s transportation network to foster a positive business climate and a commitment to invest in road and rail.”

Growth in freight volumes at the port is being driven largely by China’s expanding economy. Demand is up for bulk commodities while imports of consumer goods from China’s burgeoning manufacturing sector have been booming.

James R. Hertwig has been named president of CSX Intermodal, Inc. (CSXI). Hertwig joins CSXI from Landstar Logistics Inc., where he was its president. Hertwig will lead all aspects of CSXI’s operations, sales and marketing efforts. The appointment was effective on June 21, said Clarence W. Gooden, CSX executive VP and chief commercial officer.

For the second consecutive week – and the fourth time this year – intermodal traffic on U.S. railroads set a weekly record during the week ended June 19, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported on Thursday.

Intermodal volume of 220,285 trailers and containers was 12.4 percent above the corresponding week last year and 1,829 above the previous week when the old record was established. Trailer traffic was up 15.3 percent from last year while container volume showed an 11.5 percent gain.

Carload freight, which doesn’t include the intermodal data, totaled 339,201 units, up 4.4 percent from last year. Total volume was estimated at 30.8 billion ton-miles, up 5.1 percent from the corresponding week last year.

Thirteen of 19 carload commodity groups showed gains from last year, with grain up 22.4 percent; metals up 12.5 percent; and coal up 4.7 percent. Among commodities registering declines were grain mill products, off 11.2 percent, and motor vehicles and equipment, down 8.5 percent.

The AAR also reported the following cumulative totals for U.S. railroads during the first 24 weeks of 2004: 8,040,264 carloads, up 3.5 percent from last year; intermodal volume of 4,899,249 trailers or containers, up 8.7 percent; and total volume of an estimated 725.6 billion ton-miles, up 4.8 percent from last year’s first 24 weeks.

On Canadian railroads, during the week ended June 19 carload traffic totaled 66,953 cars, up 11.0 percent from last year while intermodal volume totaled 42,924 trailers or containers, up less than one-tenth of one percent from last year.

Cumulative originations for the first 24 weeks of 2004 on the Canadian railroads totaled 1,621,834 carloads, up 8.5 percent from last year, and 993,021 trailers and containers, down 0.1 percent from last year.

Combined cumulative volume for the first 24 weeks of 2004 on 15 reporting U.S. and Canadian railroads totaled 9,662,098 carloads, up 4.3 percent from last year and 5,892,270 trailers and containers, up 7.2 percent from last year.

The AAR also reported that originated carload freight on the Mexican railroad Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM) during the week ended June 19 totaled 11,382 cars, up 0.6 percent from last year. TFM reported intermodal volume of 2,057 originated trailers or containers, down 53.5 percent from the 24^th week of 2003. For the first 24 weeks of 2004, TFM reported cumulative originated volume of 212,278 cars, up 1.4 percent from last year, and 72,003 trailers or containers, down 18.2 percent.

Railroads reporting to AAR account for 88 percent of U.S. carload freight and 95 percent of rail intermodal volume. When the U.S. operations of Canadian railroads are included, the figures increase to 95 percent and 100 percent. Canadian railroads reporting to the AAR account for 90 percent of Canadian rail traffic.

Cañon City wants an answer

Impatient with lagging negotiations, the Cañon City, Colo., city council agreed June 21 to issue a July 1 deadline to the owners of Royal Gorge Route Railroad and Rock & Rail – or risk RGRR losing use of the Santa Fe depot.

“This shouldn’t be characterized as a threatening thing,” City Attorney John Havens said. “We think it is what is doable based on what has happened to date. We are just asking them to put into writing what has already been agreed upon verbally,” he told the Cañon City Daily Record.

The city has worked to conclude the negotiations, which also include the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park. The council went into executive session following the meeting to discuss contract specifics.

Havens said he was instructed in the executive session to draft a letter establishing July 1 as the deadline for the railroads’ written consent for the bridge’s second-annual Go Fast Games on October 8-10.

Gustav Johnson III ransacked his longtime neighbor’s home.

He ripped everything out of George Cockle’s house near 50^th and Hamilton Streets in Omaha: the grandfather clock, the stove, a collection of porcelain dolls, the pictures on the wall.

What he and his accomplices didn’t take, they destroyed, the Omaha World-Herald reported on June 22.

Even worse than the personal property, Cockle said, his neighbor stole his intellectual property. A longtime railroad photographer and writer, the 75-year-old Army veteran had compiled a lifetime of photos of trains and warplanes - literally hundreds of thousands of images.

All five of his books dealt with western railroads, especially the Union Pacific. His most recent book, Union Pacific, was published in 1990.

He was in the middle of compiling another book on railroads. That, too, was ruined when his neighbor stole his computer and trashed his photos.

“There’s no way to describe the loss,” Cockle said.

“My identity has been violated. My livelihood has been destroyed. It would be equivalent to what a tornado would do if it had just circled in on my house and carried away all my belongings.”

The tornado stopped spinning for a moment last week, on June 21.

Douglas County District Judge J Russell Derr sentenced Johnson, 51, to 12 to 16 years in prison and ordered him to pay $280,000 in restitution to Cockle.

Johnson, whose attorney said his theft spree was fueled by drugs and alcohol, vowed to pay his former neighbor back, begging Cockle and the judge for forgiveness.

Cockle called it an “Oscar-winning performance.” The colorful World War II and Vietnam vet said he’ll “probably die before I see dime one from Gus… but I’m satisfied with the sentence. To me, it’s the end of a very upsetting, frustrating, confusing year.”

The year began when Cockle arrived home in May 2003 from a six-week vacation in Florida to find debris a foot deep in his four-story, four-bedroom house.

Burglars had kicked down three locked doors and hauled away anything of value.

Johnson wasn’t caught until months later, when he forged one of Cockle’s checks and an alert teller made him put his thumbprint on it. Investigators traced the thumbprint to Johnson.

Tracking down Cockle’s stuff proved tougher. Investigators think the thieves held an “estate sale,” selling Cockle’s stuff to the highest bidder.

Cockle managed to find a grandfather clock, but only because the thieves couldn’t rip off the plaque his children attached. It read, “To Our Loving Father” and listed the Cockle children’s names.

The rest was gone, including an organ, half of his parents’ collection of Royal Doulton figurines, a silver-dollar collection – and then there were the pictures.

“How do you replace that stuff?” he asked. “You can’t.”

He has begun to try. Cockle has reprinted more than 500 photos that had been destroyed. He has started rewriting all of his captions, hoping he can finish his book.

Ultimately, he said, he knows he can’t replace the memories in his house of 32 years. So, he said, he probably will sell the house when the insurance company finishes the extensive repairs this summer.

“It’s just not the same,” he said. “It’ll never be the same.”

Two Photos - NCI: Dennis Kirkpatrick Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority No. 3623, a Type 7 Light Rail Vehicle (LRV), stops briefly at Boston’s North Station inbound platform. This was the lead car of a two-car consist, and was the last time a trolley would pass through this station, built 91 years ago in 1911. MBTA supervisors stand by to close the station after the trolley leaves with its final passengers. Starting today, the new “North Station Super Station” will open underground and adjacent to the MBTA’s nearby Orange line station.

Getting a photo pass from Boston’s MBTA

Being the webmaster for Destination: Freedom has its rewards. After all, I get to see all the stories a day or two before everyone else. Being in Boston and within the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) system, also places me in a position of being able to get story information and photos for our E-zine from a large commuter rail and transit system.

The MBTA is a state-run transportation agency, and for a long time it has maintained a “No photography” policy on its properties. There are those who would argue that all state property is public and that such bans have Constitutional implications, but we will leave that to the legal experts to work out. For the time being, anyone hoisting a camera out of their bags and taking pictures is subject to being stopped by an MBTA employee or one of its transit police officers.

This ban does not, nor could not apply to images taken from public property such as on a nearby sidewalk, a bridge, or a neighboring yard. The courts have already ruled that if you can see it with the naked eye, its fair game. Yet many of us have read news reports, including D:F, the railfan message boards and list servers that have related stories of shutterbugs and hobbyist chronologers being stopped on public land and being questioned about their activities in the post 9/11 era. To say that it’s getting harder to take a picture or be a train hobbyist is a gross understatement.

So when I decided to get a photo permit pass from the MBTA for purposes of augmenting D:F, I decided that I should “do it by the book,” since the post-September 11, 2001 and the post May 11, 2004 Madrid era is taking its toll. That book remains an open-ended story.

I had already been aware that the MBTA offered photo permit passes to professionals and hobbyists, so I sent an e-mail to the general request address at the MBTA in early June.

After several days passed, I decided to try the same approach with their press department. Two weeks later I received a copy of the photo pass request form as an MS Word attachment by e-mail. The instructions said that it could be sent back the same way. The personal information gathered would be used by the MBTA Transit Police to run a criminal background check on me to make sure I was not a criminal or under watch as a possible terrorist. I completed the form and sent it away. The form said that it could take as much as a week for the MBTA police to do its check.

Sure enough, six days later I received a telephone call from the MBTA Marketing Department to tell me that I had passed muster and that I could visit their office to pick up my photo permit. I felt privileged. Since the call came on a Friday afternoon and early in the week had me assigned to other tasks, it was Wednesday of the following week before I could appear to pick up the pass. I was told all I needed was a photo ID to prove who I was.

The following Wednesday (June 23) I went to the MBTA Marketing Department offices. It is located in a relatively modern building in Boston’s Park Square district. I made my way into the first-floor food court, which is open, the public and proceeded up an escalator to a second floor mezzanine. There I was asked for photo ID, was logged into a book, and received a sticker pass to wear on my shirt as I moved beyond that point. I was not carrying any bags so there were none to check.

Absent curiously enough, were any metal detectors. No one escapes this checkpoint because of the many state agencies in this building. It is apparently a security hot point. Even state employees doing building work had to stop and display their IDs and be checked in much to their dismay.

I was directed to some elevators

Once in the marketing offices, I gave my name and said I was there for my photo permit. After a few minutes’ wait in the reception area, a nice woman appeared with my permit. All she needed was my photo ID, in this case my driver’s license. I willingly extended it, and she took it to photocopy it. She returned immediately and asked for my Social Security card.

My SS card?

I was told photo ID was all that was necessary. Since I chose to have a state-issued ID number so my driver’s license would not have my social security number on it, they needed my SS number as well.

“Can I recite it, I know it by heart,” I said.

“No,” was the reply.

No SS card, no photo permit, or so it seemed, so after a couple of minutes delving into the deep cavernous parts of my wallet that I rarely visit, I found it with a small sigh of relief. Thankfully, it was not very tattered and was legible. The nice woman disappeared into the inner sanctum of offices once again to make the necessary file copies.

Upon returning, she had me sign the back of the card, its photocopied clone that was to be kept on file, and returned to me all my identification.

The card itself is nothing spectacular. I was expecting something that my image would appear on to properly identify me however that was not the case. The card makes an effort to make sure it is not mistaken as a transit pass of any kind, and offered a few of the already known-rules. Among those rules are no tripods or monopods to support cameras as they might trip someone passing by. Also, no flash photography as the sudden glare in subdued subway lighting might temporarily blind a passenger or a motorman.

Once the card was in hand I noticed that it was only good for 30 days. I had been previously told that such a pass should be good for 90 days, so I asked if there had been a mistake. The response was that the rules changed earlier in the month – photo permits are now only good for 30 days from date of issue.

Since renewing such a permit would be unrealistic for someone who would be reporting on train and transit issues in Boston with regularity, I asked if there was another option available. After explaining the mission of D:F I was directed this time to the press department, one flight down.

As D:F went into copy deadline I was waiting to hear from someone in the press department to determine if a long-life photo pass was obtainable, as well as to get hooked up with the whole process of press releases, places to call for quotes, etc.

I hope to file a follow-up by the next edition, but this may be a “fingers crossed” kind of promise.

It occurred to me that while the MBTA may feel justified with their photo ban for safety and security reasons, they do not have a similar ban on anyone sitting quietly on a subway bench making sketches of where everything is. A quick read through this story demonstrates what a man can remember with reasonable intelligence and fair memory in a secure environment in just under one hour. If you were a threat to the transit system, you wouldn’t need a camera to do it. The only people being penalized appears to be professional photographers, reporters, tourists and railfans seeking to document a special moment in time, such as their first ride on a subway train, or a last run of a closing branch.

The post September 11 and Madrid eras placed a serious burden on the American public. The question that many seem to be asking is whether this is too much.

As a footnote to this story, the MBTA plans to start, random searches in two weeks of bags, backpacks and other carry-ons being wielded by passengers. Random searches raises legal issues and the local branch of the American Civil Liberties Union has been quoted in the press as being interested in backing a case against the “T” on this and related issues. Only time will tell when this happens. It appears inevitable.

Personally speaking, I just want to take a couple of pictures of the trains for the e-zine to go with associated stories as any publication may have want to do. However, the time may be rapidly approaching when D:F readers may be viewing my hand-drawn pictures, and I am no artist by any means.

One last time. The view from inside Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority No. 3623 as the train departs North Station and rounds the bend down into the subway. It is a last look at the Green Line’s North Station platform viewed through the trolley car’s window. Boston’s other “Green Monster” (recall Fenway Park) will soon be a memory. The new station lies underground between the existing platform and from where the picture was taken. The O’Neill federal office building, left, and the Fleet Center sports arena - site on the Democratic Party’s national convention next month - loom overhead.

Dear Editor:

In your “Laney sees a place for Amtrak” article (D:F June 21), I was extremely disappointed to see D:F give a straight report of “loss per passenger” statistics. The anti-Amtrak crowd often throws around these statistics, but they are misleading. A pro-Amtrak, pro-rail publication ought to know better.

I’m not an accountant, though I deal with the subject some in the course of work. I have long thought the “loss per passenger” statistics were terribly misleading.

Most non-accountants think accounting is uninteresting and uncontroversial, but accurate accounting is critical in assessing the condition of any business, and it requires careful thought and good decisions. The “loss per passenger” statistics include “fully allocated” costs, where corporate and other overhead is divided up and assigned to individual trains, and all train costs are then divided by the number of passengers. This is highly misleading to the general public, the media, and the decision makers in Congress.

If I take a trip on the Sunset Limited, will Amtrak have to spend an extra $400?

No.

If a current train passenger decides to fly instead, will Amtrak save $400?

No.

If Amtrak eliminates the Sunset, will it save $400 times the number of passengers?

No.

Most overhead costs are incurred whether or not the Sunset operates. Most Sunset operating costs are incurred whether or not any passengers are on board. “Loss per passenger” statistics are bad accounting. Public dissemination of this information is useful only for those trying to argue for the elimination of “money losing” trains.

Will French
Birmingham

As an active advocate on behalf of rail riders on the national and local levels, I am involved with issues concerning New Jersey Transit, Amtrak, and APTA (my encounter at the APTA convention with Administrator Allan Rutter was profiled in the May 24 D:F.

I have reviewed the comments of Paul Weyrich in last week’s issue, and I commend him for expressing a pro-transit view that often places him at odds with other “conservatives” on the political scene. I have personally met with Mr. Weyrich and discussed Amtrak and local transit issues with him, and I am glad that he is playing “right field” on our team.

While Mr. Weyrich receives much of the publicity that APTA and other organizations have to offer, I have noticed that most of the rider advocates I have met come from my side of the political spectrum, not his.

I was a founding member of the New Jersey Lawyers for Human Rights, and I view better transportation as a human rights issue. My mission as an advocate is to improve social equity and justice while strengthening our communities, through improvement of mobility for everyone. This can only be achieved by increasing the availability of public transportation, in terms of both routes and frequency of service.

Our right to travel, which should be fundamental, is often conditioned upon the privilege of being licensed to operate a motor vehicle. Only with better local transit and more long-distance transportation (especially Amtrak trains) to link our local transit systems, will mobility for all Americans increase.

Many of the rider advocates with whom I am acquainted believe as I do. Certainly Mr. Weyrich’s voice should be heard.

So should ours.

David Peter Alan
Attorney-at-Law
South Orange, N.J.